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Interest in world juniors may be cooling

BUFFALO, N.Y.—If nothing else, this edition of the world juniors might indicate how far you can dig before the well runs dry. Having tried in Toronto and an especially lukewarm Montreal twice in the past three years, the IIHF jammed the tournament back in Buffalo only six years after the Russians scored five third-period goals to come back from a 3-0 deficit to beat Canada in the final, and got so drunk they weren’t allowed on their plane home the next day. Between the hostile Canadian-dominated crowd and a host nation whose legal drinking age is 21, those Russians really did deliver one of this under-20 tournament’s defining achievements.

Seven years later, the Russians lost to the Czech Republic to start the day, and then Canada’s 4-2 win over Finland came in front of a lot of empty seats. When they played Russia here on Boxing Day in 2011, the place was full of some 20,000 brash, singing Canadian fans. This time, they announced the crowd at 9,552.

Canda's Taylor Raddys, centre, celebrates a goal by teammate Sam Steel, obscured, against Finland's Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen during the first period of IIHF World Junior Championship preliminary round hockey action in Buffalo, N.Y., Tuesday. There were lots of empty seats at the arena. (Mark Blinch / THE CANADIAN PRESS)

Maybe it’s cost; maybe it’s fatigue; and maybe a small part is that this Canadian team isn’t billed as an all-timer, or even a now-timer. There’s no Connor McDavid, since we only made one of him. There’s no holy-cats household name. There are a lot of good, fast young players who may not be favoured to win the tournament, but could do it anyway.

“There’s some guys that are more skilled, you can say, and some guys that are more defensive,” said winger Taylor Raddysh, who had a goal and an assist while playing just 13:47. “The players you have to have on a good team. We don’t want to call anyone a superstar; we just want to go about our business and play our game and get better as the tournament goes on.”

That’s the goal. Canada might finally have a big-time goalie again in Carter Hart — it’s been a long time since Carey Price and Steve Mason went back-to-back in 2007 and 2008, towards the tail end of Canada’s five straight gold medals — behind a deep defence corps that is more than Thomas Chabot playing 40 minutes in last year’s gold medal final.

But it’s the Americans with the heralded forward corps, and more draft-eligible players flanking its first-round picks. Sweden’s good; Finland, too. Canada passed on scoring threats like Owen Tippett (51 goals in his last 77 games for Mississauga), Nick Suzuki (52 goals in his last 93 games for Owen Sound), or Cody Glass (52 goals in his last 101 games for the Portland Winterhawks). They went for depth and fit.

So, will they have trouble scoring? And did this game help dispel the idea? Well, centre Robert Thomas was a force between Raddysh and Boris Katchouk. Canada got goals from three of its four lines.

Will they score like this all tournament? Well, this is hockey, so you only control what you can control. But Katchouk’s game-opening goal was a blazing drive and swerving finish, and the IIHF generously let him keep it despite Katchouk dislodging the net before the puck crossed the line. Canada’s second goal was a power-play job, driving the net for a rebound. The third goal came on a rush from occasional Montreal Canadiens defenceman Victor Mete, who chipped the puck past a defender and saw it batted by a Finn right to Canada’s Jonah Gadjovich, who whipped it to Drake Batherson. That made for three goals on four shots, which one way to do it. Canada’s fourth goal, after Finland pulled to within 3-2, was Raddysh whacking a bouncing puck, but after Canada skated it to the right place.

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Speed was a common factor: good bounces was another. Everyone will be needed, sooner or later.

“We’re the ones that have to show him to gain his trust,” said Katchouk, a Tampa second-rounder who has 27 goals in 30 OHL games this season, and who scored the opening goal. “The returning players just say calm down and play your game. I mean, we know in that room what we’re capable of, and on every line there’s players that can really score, and I think we showed that tonight. There was depth scoring today, there wasn’t just one line scoring all the goals. Our speed is bar none, I think.”

A few things could have gone the other way: a different replay decision on the first goal, a different bounce on the third, a world where defenceman Callan Foote didn’t dive on a third-period puck that was about to cross the goal-line behind Hart, and sweep it out with his glove. Hart, for his part, appreciated it.

“He just said, great save, thank you very much,” said Foote. “I said, you’ve got a lot more (saves), so thank you.”

Look, this team may not seem as compelling as some others we’ve seen. Canada has one gold in eight years. This tournament could belong to the U.S. again, and if the crowds don’t improve it might feel like Canadian fans have half-abandoned this team, here in frozen Buffalo. But Team Canada will hope it has enough good players who can show up when it matters. Some wells run dry: some surprise you. Canada, in this tournament, will have to dig deep.

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